[SassyMY]

Love the forum and love the site, this actually helped me pick my dog’s food 1.5 years ago, however, I need Your expertise!
I have a 1.5 year old maltese yorkie mix.
She came to me on diamond (horrifying).
I tried Blue Buffalo (she liked it so much she ate her poop), then I switched to Nutro Natural Choice small breed chicken (what was I thinking?) and Nutro Ultra toy breed.

Then she started biting her nails, licking her paws, and scratching lots. She’s mostly indoors and we have no other pets, so fleas were out of the question. I looked into dog food once again and bough Natural Balance Potatoe and Duck (Am I crazy?!?!) She’s been doing okay on it, not licking her paws and biting her nails. But she’s still scratching. And DEL MONTE bought them.

You guys please help me! I’d like something I can get from PetCo or PetSmart… small breed, lower protein. I’m desperate at this point.

Thank you in advance for advice, yelling at me, anything, but food advice MUCH appreciated!

[InkedMarie]

Why do you need lower protein? You can’t shop somewhere else?

[pugmomsandy]

Nature’s Variety Instinct Healthy Weight Raw Boost Chicken Meal is 32%. You might be able to find Nutrisource grain free and Solid Gold (Sundancer recipe) at PetCo/Petsmart as well. The grain free foods range from 25-28% and Sundancer is 30%. At a feed store/tractor supply store, you might find Amicus 30%, Pulsar 28%. All of these are actually in the “medium range” of protein.

[Mom2Cavs]

If you must shop at Petsmart, I would go with their private label brand Simply Nourish and use the Sweet Potato and Salmon limited ingredient one. Their canned foods are awesome, too, and some don’t contain poultry. Wellness has a Simple line, and they have grain free, poultry free but the size of the kibble is not all that small to me. At Petco, your choices are a little more varied. Solid Gold is a good food. They have Wee Bits that is made for small mouths. But if you are so opposed to Diamond manufacturing the food, then Idk because they do manufacture some Solid Gold. Avoderm Revolving Menu is grain free and the Trout may be poultry free, too. I would stay away from at least chicken, if I were you. Petco also has Nature’s Variety, grain free Instinct and grain inclusive Prairie that might work for you. Merrick is good, too, and has a few chicken free foods. I hope this gives you a good start. Good luck to you!

[SassyMY]

Pugsmomsandy and Mom2Cavs, thank you both for your expertise and advice. Its easier to buy knowing that if it doesn’t work I can return a 15,20, even 30 dollar bag of food.

Great point about staying away from Chicken, maybe even poultry in general, because the duck did the same thing. She was fine for a few days and she has started biting again.

Do you guys think it’s a possible anxiety issue? She loves my boyfriend (he got her for me) and we don’t love together, so on Mondays and Tuesdays she’s usually quite depressed.

[SassyMY]

Hi all, just wanted to let you know I used the dog food locator on here and found a great place (several actually) close by that sell premium foods! Looks like I’m going to try the Natures Variety and Nutrisource.
It appears that my dog may have an overload in yeast, that’s showing through on her right paw. Are these still good foods for yeast? Thank you!

[theBCnut]

For yeast issues, you want to minimize exposure to sugars, which means you want as low a carb level as you can find. Nature’s Variety should be good, but NutriSource should not be used until you have had a handle on the yeast for a while.

[SassyMY]

That’s great advice, thanks Patty… the natures variety is what I’ll go with!!!

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